Long Beach Crit # 3 Race Report

Are you kidding with the name of this thing?  I'd think Lotz-of-love (I'm not sure if I can use his nickname since I don't know him that well, but since he called me a skirt when he was giving me my payout I feel a bit entitled) could come up with something more creative.  The "Sea-Vu" crit, The Valley of 4 Corners, The Revenge of the Reflectors, whatever.

Needless to say the crit was in LB, in some industrial park, where the 405 meets the 710.  Breathe deeply!  Lots of teams were there Helen's, Kahala, SDBC, Banning's, Swamis, some others, and Anna Lang, formerly of Aaron's.  I had hoped only 10 people would show up so I could practice riding on the front and then getting dropped in the sprint, I think I really need to work on that, but alas there was a decently sized field and with TCTC/MJ present and lecturing I decided I've have to put my over-educated brain to work.  sigh.

My plan was to take the first lap at the front, since I hadn't seen the course, and then just watch what Anna would do.  She was in cahoots with Swamis, so it was pretty easy to figure out that none of the break attempts would stick.  It was active enough, but when you aren't chasing or attacking crits aren't all that exciting.  I say this now but remember Gila, and Redlands, and Valley of the Sun?  I wasn't attacking or chasing there (unless you count chasing when you get dropped) but those were "exciting" in a different way.  Ie:  Will I puke now?  Oho, I can't see any more, I hope the corner isn't here.  I'm really thirsty but too arfraid to take a hand off and drink.  I digress.  I did one attack early and then just followed wheels, mostly staying in the top 10 spots, but sometimes moving to the back (aka - the place you don't want to be because the people there seem to take the corners in a special way.  Don't get me wrong, my cornering is also "special" but I don't like to be around other special cornerers).

Lots of laps, blah blah blah.  Maria like totally escaped the Valley and came to race with me.  OMG! She was awesome, doing several attacks and covering lots of the moves.  I just sat there.  I think I drank a whole bottle.  With two laps to go I started to move up.  This involved some time in the wind.  yuck.  With 1/2 a lap to go I was behind Anna and Jennifer W from Swamis.  I took a "special" corner on the last corner, where's the uphill finish when you actually need one?  Ultimately I came in third.  On the podium!  In a crit!  Holy shit!  I won a sprint finish last weekend and came third in a field sprint this weekend.  Don't worry, it will all come to an end soon.  In two weeks I'm doing the Tour de PEI with the Canadian National Development Team (under the guise of Team Atlantic Canada).  The fifth stage is an 80 minute crit.  Are you serious?  That's why I've been putting in some crit practice.

After my very brief moment of tertiary glory, I had to hustle to the line to start the 30+123 race.  I'm not kidding.  They started two minutes after we finished.  I lasted longer this time.  Great.  It's amazing how much harder that race is.  Of course that race mimics the pain of NRC crits almost exactly.  I wish the men's race was first.  sigh.  I got off my bike, said bye to Maria, and handed my entire check over to TCTC/MJ.

This week is going to be painful.  Lots of hard workouts.  I predict some epic cranky temper tantrums. Then back to the middle of nowhere for the TTT with Lana!

Supèr-Fantastique!